


How to Train Your Chaos Entity

by satanfish (mjindra9)



Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [6]
Category: Spooks | MI-5
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23252530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mjindra9/pseuds/satanfish
Summary: Random shorts of the Lucas/Ros variety. Part of the Songs universe, but How to Train Your Chaos Entity can stand alone without having read any of the Songs works.
Relationships: Ros Myers/Lucas North
Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/883707
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	1. The Paper Archives

By five o’clock, the Grid was quiet. All morning, the Grid had been filled with… one or two curses and the sound of wrapping paper being torn away from literally every single thing on Ros’ desk — _who the bloody hell gift-wraps_ ** _everything_** _on a person’s desk?_ Even her _pens_ were individually gift-wrapped. It hadn’t taken Ros long to deduce the culprit. Ben and Jo lacked the balls to try anything of that magnitude on her and such petty pranks were beneath Harry. She would have liked to think it was beneath _everyone_ on the Grid, but, given that Harry’s resident _five year old_ did it, she amended that statement to _beneath everyone_ ** _except_** _Lucas_.

She looked at the mound of wrapping paper piled on Lucas’ desk and smiled. If he wanted to gift-wrap her entire desk, then he could damn well clean up his own mess when he was done in the paper archives.

“See you tomorrow, Ros,” Jo said with a wave.

Ros nodded at her and watched as Ben hurried after Jo. She nearly snorted. They thought they were _so_ subtle, yet Ros was pretty certain that they were the worst kept secret on the Grid. Even _Lucas_ , who had only been back for a month, had them figured out. Or, at least, Ros thought he did. She did her best to avoid talking to him whenever possible. Damned bastard was too good at getting under her skin. She narrowed her eyes at the pile of paper on his desk. _Too good_.

Shaking her head, Ros turned back to the file on her desk. She had to get the report written up and then she could go home for the night, pour a nice glass of red wine, maybe even enjoy a bath. All assuming, of course, there were no urgent red flashes. She’d be okay if things were quiet, just for a night. There was a new Thai place that had just opened up near her flat that she had decided she was going to stop at on the way home tonight, and she wanted to _enjoy_ her meal, damn it.

She was just finishing up the report when the pods hissed. Ros didn’t look away from her computer screen as she said, “I hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson today.”

In her peripheral vision, she saw Lucas raise an eyebrow at the mound of paper on his desk, and it took all of her considerable self-restraint to resist grinning smugly. _Bastard_. “I did,” he said before disappearing into the break room. When he reappeared, he was dragging the large rubbish bin behind him. Putting it next to his desk, he quietly dumped all the paper into the bin. Ros was disappointed. She was hoping for a _little_ more of a reaction. When he was finished, he returned the rubbish bin to the break room and then came back out to collect his jacket. “Night.”

“Good night. Try not to gift wrap my desk again in the morning.”

Lucas grinned at her, but only lifted a hand in farewell before leaving. Ros leaned back in her chair, tapping a pen against her palm. With luck, he learned what Jo and Ben already knew, which was that she didn’t like being messed about. Even if she _did_ have a _very minute_ amount of respect that he had the balls to prank her. Very, very, _very_ minute. So minute, she’d need a microscope just to see it. It was the only praise she’d give him.

-X-

The next morning was busy. Threats had been made that had to be dealt with, which meant that Section D was frenetic with activity. She had sent Ben to the archives to pull up a file for their briefing. That had been…. Almost thirty minutes ago. She looked at her watch again, scowling. “Where the hell is he?” she muttered under her breath.

“Think we should send a search party?” Jo asked, looking all too hopeful. _Definitely_ not subtle. Ros wasn’t in the mood for it.

“Ben’s a big boy. He can find a damn file on his own,” she snapped. “We’ll start without him. Lucas, you can bring him up to speed when he gets here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lucas said.

Ros narrowed her eyes. “Don’t call me ma’am.”

“Mum?”

“No.”

“Sir?”

“Shut up, Lucas.”

He shrugged and gestured for her to continue. She tried not to let the vicious pride that _she_ won that argument show on her face.

It wasn’t until Ros was almost finished the briefing that Ben finally deigned to grace them with his presence. Her expression went from thunderous to downright _murderous_ when she saw that he was not holding a file in his hand. _How bloody hard is it to find_ ** _one file_** _?_ If she had known that Ben was so incapable of it, she would have gone herself.

“Where have you been and why do you not have the file I asked for?” Ros asked shortly.

“Um, I couldn’t find it,” Ben said, glancing around the room nervously.

“What do you mean you couldn’t find it?”

He looked at her as if she had sprouted a second head. It did nothing to improve her mood. “I couldn’t find it,” he repeated.

“I got that the first time. _Why_ couldn’t you find it?”

“I dunno. Everything’s out of order.”

“ _What_?”

“Well, you know how everything is supposed to be in alphabetical order? It’s, erm, not,” Ben said.

Ros swung her head and fixed Lucas with an expression that promised she was about one word away from murdering him in his seat. He was the only one that was in the paper archives yesterday. “Lucas, do you know anything about this?” she asked, her voice dripping saccharinely.

He lifted both hands in surrender. “Should I?” There was a gleam in his eyes that Ros decided she didn’t like _at all_.

“I don’t know, Lucas. _Should_ you?”

Lucas shrugged. “I can help Ben look for it, if you want. Since you seem to think I know something Ben doesn’t.”

“Fine. Go find the damn file and then come back,” Ros said, pinching the bridge of her nose as he got up and quickly left the conference room. She was going to bloody well kill Lucas if he found the file in anything less than an hour.

Harry chose that moment to interrupt her plans to murder Lucas, which were getting increasingly inventive. “Did I hear that you sent Lucas to the paper archives?” he asked.

“That was yesterday,” Jo said. “He spent the day there because he gift-wrapped Ros’ desk.”

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Ros, I think we should speak.”

For a moment, no one spoke. Finally, Ros said, “Very well. Jo, catch Ben up to speed. If Lucas comes back before I do, tell him to leave the file on my desk and work with Malcolm to trace the source of the threat.”

Jo nodded and, looking between Ros and Harry, ushered Ben out of the conference room and back to her desk. It probably wasn’t the best solution, having Jo catch Ben up, but it’d give the two of them something to do until Lucas got back with the file _and_ she had a chance to hear what Harry had to say. _Assuming they don’t take a jaunt to the paper archives_. She scowled. If she caught them in the paper archives, there would be some _very_ strong words about how what they did on their own time was their business, but she would _not_ tolerate fooling around at work.

Harry closed the conference door behind him and sat down heavily in one of the chairs at the opposite end of the table from Ros. He rubbed his forehead and Ros found herself impatiently twisting a pen between her fingers. “Don’t be too hard on Ben for not finding the file,” Harry said, finally.

“Finding files in the paper archives isn’t rocket science. It’s not even _pre-school_ science.”

“It is after Lucas has been unleashed in the archives,” Harry said. He looked up at her. “If I may make a suggestion, if you have any other method of punishment available to you, _don’t_ send Lucas to the paper archives. It’s going to take us a _week_ to sort through whatever new organizational scheme he’s come up with.”

Ros blinked. _What_? New… organizational scheme? “What, did he reverse-alphabet everything?”

As if on cue, Lucas stepped into the conference room, file in hand, only to pause. He looked between Harry and Ros and then grinned. “I found your file,” he said, holding it up for Ros.

“How’s the paper archives organized this time?” Harry asked.

His grin widened. “Alphabetical by the third letter in the author’s last name.”

Ros blinked. “ _What_?”

“Last time, it was in order of publication date. The time before that, it was according to the author’s birthday,” Harry said, rubbing his forehead again.

She was dumbfounded. “Just how much time did you have on your hands yesterday?” she asked, finally finding her voice.

Lucas shrugged. “I got bored.”

“You reorganized _the entire paper archive_?”

“Yep.”

“You told me that you didn’t know anything about Ben not being able to find the bloody file!”

“Actually, I asked if I should know and that I could help him find it. I never said I didn’t know,” Lucas said. Ros wanted to punch that stupid grin off his face. He was wasting valuable time by being a right _bastard_ and reorganizing the entire paper archive, and then had the _audacity_ to not only correct her assessment of his knowledge, but to be _annoyingly_ correct and she simply hadn’t _noticed_ that he hadn’t answered the damn question.

Harry sighed. “And this is why Lucas is banned from the paper archives.”

“You said you learned something!” Ros protested weakly.

“I did. I learned that there are exactly two files that have last names that are only two letters long.”

She threw her pen at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are some pretty crazy times, huh? Last night, after my work called me to say that my office is closed indefinitely (we'll be reopening once, y'know, things settle down, but, at this time, we don't know when that is), I felt pretty bummed. My writing group has been trying to do a lot to help people who are feeling the strain of the times and I started wondering what I could do to help people. More specifically, I found myself wondering what I could do to help you guys, even if it's just a temporary respite. I considered mass uploading the rest of Little Boy Lost, only to realize that wasn't really practical, partly because, yes, it's finished, but I edit as I upload, so it'd be a massive undertaking on my part and, on a good day these days, I just don't have the spoons to do all that editing in one go. I then considered throwing the rest of Little Boy Lost into a Google doc and letting you all decide if you wanted to read it or not, with the caveat that things might change between the Google doc and when it gets uploaded to AO3, but, again, I didn't think it feasible (I wouldn't be comfortable uploading something I haven't gone over).
> 
> In the end, while I was in the shower today, I came up with a title and that title spawned this solution: a bit of levity in anxious times. Just an anthology of short Lucas/Ros stories. There's no rhyme or reason to them, no linear timeline. Some are set in the early days, some are going to be in the late stages. I have no idea what I'm going to write about next any more than anyone else does! I'm just going to put on some happy music, look for some happy prompts, and write. I'll try to avoid spoilers for future Songs stories, but I figure I haven't made it secret that Lucas/Ros are my endgame, so I don't consider that to be a spoiler.
> 
> Thank you to my lovely beta, Zen, for not only reading this over, but for giving me encouragement on a day when my anxiety was not so kind to me and giving me the confidence boost I needed to run with this idea.
> 
> If anyone has a prompt that they'd like to see, feel free to leave a comment and I'll see what I can do! I hope that this little offering can help ease some tension, again, even if it's only for a little while. Stay safe, everyone, and remember you've got a little Canuck thinking of you and wishing nothing but the best for you <3 We'll get through this together <3


	2. A Quiet Moment

It took Ros a minute to recognize that she was waking up, another to recognize _what_ had woken her. Blinking bleary eyes in time to hear the door whisper open and close, she lifted her head and looked at the time. Too early. _Far_ too early. Ros flopped back onto the bed and pulled Lucas’ now vacant pillow over her head. Even years after, eight years in Russian prison left their scars on Lucas’ body and soul. He’d just gotten _better_ at hiding the messy parts. She wasn’t sure if that scared her or reassured her.

Ros groaned into the pillow. _Men_. She _could_ go out to check on him, ask how he was doing, but they’d done the song and dance often enough that she already knew how the conversation would go. It was one they had often, and, like many conversations between them, involved little to no speaking. She’d ask if he was okay and he’d shake his head. If nothing else, it was a marked improvement from when they first started dating. It wasn’t until she told him, in no uncertain terms, that he could keep his scars to himself, she wouldn’t press, but that she wouldn’t tolerate him _lying_ to her about them, that he finally started to at least be _honest_ with her when he wasn’t okay. He still didn’t tell her anything. She was silently thankful for that, not that she'd ever admit it to him.

Rolling onto her back and tossing Lucas’ pillow onto his side of the bed, Ros stared up at the ceiling. She needed more coffee if she was going to deal with this. Lucas would make coffee. He _always_ made coffee when he left the bedroom. Sometimes, he would move to the floor to try to get a bit more sleep. But, when he left the bedroom, it was his tacit acknowledgement that his nightmares had been bad and that he wouldn’t find any more sleep, which meant coffee. Lots and lots of delicious coffee because Ros didn’t buy the cheap stuff that the Grid seemed to think was the best coffee _ever_.

The promise of coffee outweighed her desire to get a bit more sleep before going into work. She could operate on… however many hours going to bed at eleven and waking up at three-thirty was. One didn’t become a spook without adopting a little bit of a bizarre sleep schedule and learning to work with little sleep.

Silently, Ros got up and, after a moment’s hesitation, grabbed the sheet off the bed and draped it around her shoulders. If Lucas was going to be an arse and drag her out of bed with sweet, sweet coffee, then she was going to be _comfortable_ as she drank her coffee, thank you very much. Shuffling out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen, Ros continued to think unkind things, even as she winced at the kitchen light blaring into her eyes. At least, this time, Lucas had the decency not to laugh. _Bastard not only waking me up but_ ** _blinding_** _me with bright lights_.

“Coffee,” Ros said, her voice still hoarse with sleep.

“I’m _shocked_ that the diplomat’s daughter didn’t use her manners.”

Ros glared at him. “ _Please_ give me a cup of coffee before I _politely_ pour the contents of the coffeepot on bits that you really don’t want hot coffee on.”

“That’s better,” Lucas said in a tone that was _far_ too chipper for three-thirty in the morning.

She mumbled something that vaguely resembled a scathing curse before huddling on the sofa, sheet still pulled tight around her. A few minutes later, a steaming mug of coffee appeared in front of her and she took it gratefully. A second later, Lucas joined her on the couch, leaning forward so that his elbows were braced against his knees, his coffee hanging loosely between his legs. She almost warned him against dropping the mug and spilling coffee everywhere, only to remember that Lucas had once joked — although she wasn’t so sure he was joking — that coffee was one of the main food groups and was damn near sacred. From the circles under his eyes and the darkness that lurked in those blue-grey depths, she could see _why_ coffee was so sacred to him.

Taking a sip and torn between being annoyed and grateful that Lucas had gotten her coffee perfectly, _like he always did_ , Ros leaned back against the couch. Neither of them spoke. They didn’t _have_ to. It was one of the things she didn’t realize she enjoyed until she experienced it. With Adam, they always had to talk. He constantly felt a need to break the silence, to say _something_. But, with Lucas, he… almost seemed to prefer the quiet. Ros found that she also preferred the quiet. They both said so much with simple gestures, a brush of fingers, a small smile, a coffee after a difficult operation.

At some point, when Ros was about two-thirds through her coffee, she shifted so that she was leaning against Lucas. She could feel the warmth of his skin through the thin sheet that was still around her shoulders. As she rested her head against his shoulder, she smiled in contentment. If she were the sappy sort, she _might_ even go so far as to say that she and Lucas were made for each other, that they complemented each other, _understood_ each other on a level that no one else did. Ros made a face. _This is why I leave the sappy garbage to him_.

Then again, there were a _lot_ of things that Ros left to Lucas. One thing that, _unfortunately_ , hadn’t changed after they started seeing each other was his penchant for pranking her and _annoying_ her. If she heard him bring up the damn fork _one more time_ , she was going to put a fork in _him_ and see if he still wanted to tell everyone about _that one time_. Only Lucas bloody North would joke about the time she _killed_ someone with a fork.

Although….

“Did you _really_ impersonate Chechen terrorists?” Ros asked, looking up at Lucas.

He hummed and glanced at her. “What?”

“Back when you first came back to England. Malcolm said you impersonated a Chechen terrorist.”

“Because I’m _sure_ you didn’t listen to the recording,” he said. She didn’t miss the small smile that was threatening to form. _Got him_.

She sat up and, turning so that she was facing him, she lightly started to trace her fingers along the ship tattoo on the ball of his shoulder. He was right, she _had_ listened to the recording. Unlike Malcolm, she didn’t need a translator to tell her what he had said, though. “Only you would have thought to angrily tell a knock knock joke in Russian.”

“It was better than a ‘your mom’ joke,” Lucas said. The smile broke free as he shook his head. “And it worked, didn’t it?”

“Lucas North, please tell me you would not have stooped so low as to tell a ‘ _your mom_ ’ _joke_.”

He grinned at her. “If the knock knock joke didn’t work, I might have.”

“Should I be worried about the police knocking on my door for dating an actual five year old?”

“I think both you and the police would agree I’m fairly tall for a five year old.”

“You’re not answering the question.”

Lucas winked at her and leaned back. The coffee was clearly starting to work its magic on him because some of the tension in his shoulders almost seemed to dissipate. Shaking her head with a smile, Ros pressed herself against his side. The sappier side of her _might_ have even called it _snuggling_ , but Ros Myers did _not_ snuggle, no matter _what_ Lucas said. Nor did she practically _melt_ into Lucas when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his fingers idly playing with the ends of her hair.

They finished their coffee in companionable silence. Lucas moved both their mugs to the coffee table with assurances that he’d wash them in a bit. Ros wasn’t about to complain. She was comfortable and was having a hard time reminding herself that she didn’t want to go back to sleep. She _wanted_ to enjoy this quiet moment with Lucas. God knew they didn’t get them often enough. Work kept them both busy and, while they tried to make the best of it, they both knew that their first love would always be MI-5. It was why they _worked_ so well together.

She closed her eyes and smiled. No, quiet moments like these were perfect. She didn’t have to be MI-5’s ice queen and Lucas could lower his walls, just for a moment, and not worry about the repercussions. They could both just… _be_.

At some point, Ros recognized that someone was nudging her shoulder. For the second time that morning, she blinked open sleepy eyes and found herself looking up at Lucas. It took her a moment to realize that she had fallen asleep against him and, being the _occasionally_ , vaguely-resembling nice guy that he was, Lucas hadn’t woken her up. She should probably complain, tell him that he should have woken her, that she had wanted to stay up with him. Instead, she asked, “Did you get any more sleep?”

The sad, small upturn of the corner of his mouth said everything he didn’t.

Coffee it was, then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Zen and I have had this long-standing headcanon that Lucas got the kidnappers out of the house in 7x01 by angrily telling a knock knock joke in Russian. I have no idea if that's what he actually said or not, but I'm gonna stick with this headcanon because it's just so _Lucas_. Only Lucas would think to angrily tell a knock knock joke when a man's life is literally hanging in the balance. XD
> 
> Thank you, as always, to my beta reader, Zen, for going over this and making sure everything looked good! Also, thank you for the wonderful support, comments, kudos, and prompt suggestions. I'm glad that this could help bring a few smiles to some faces. :)
> 
> My goal is to update this one daily for as long as I'm off work, but where nothing is written or planned, I'm playing everything by ear. UPDATE: I likely will not meet my goal of updating this daily. Sorry, everyone! I'll try to keep regular updates coming, but anxiety is making writing a real challenge, so I'm going to be focusing on looking after myself, hanging in there, and hopefully writing more Lucas/Ros goodness. :)


	3. Night Out (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SPOILER WARNING. All caps ;) Anyway, spoilers for the end of s8 and beginning s9. If you wish to remain spoiler-free, I'd suggest giving this chapter (as well as the Part 2 chapter, which will also have spoiler notes whenever I publish it) a pass. If you've seen s8 and 9, there is one significant change that I've made to the canon that is present in this chapter, so there will still be spoilers, even if you've seen the episodes (although, if you've read my responses to comments, you probably already know the change ;)).

As glad as Lucas was that Ros had finally broken down and just _given_ him a key to her flat, he had to admit, he kind of missed picking the lock all the time. He’d pick the lock, Ros would scowl at him and insist that she was going to change her locks — _again_ — and then he’d just pick the lock again. But it was only fair. She had broken into _his_ flat a number of times to plant some bugs that he knew absolutely nothing about _at all_. He _even_ had fixed the door that suspiciously had started to squeal shortly after he had moved in. Very suspicious, that squeal. _Very_ suspicious. He grinned. Ros had accused him of being the perpetrator. She wasn’t wrong, but he’d be damned if he ever told her that.

Slipping inside, Lucas was unsurprised to see Ros on the couch, one leg tucked under her as the other stretched along the length of the couch. His smile was warm when he saw that she was reading his copy of Blake’s _Songs of Innocence and Experience_. It wasn’t her preferred reading, which made the gesture all the more sweet. Not that he was stupid enough to _say_ that. She might actually hurl the book at him if he ever even _thought_ of suggesting that something Ros was doing was _sweet_.

“Hey,” Lucas said. He leaned over to kiss her temple.

“You’re home early,” Ros murmured, not looking up from the book.

“I took the afternoon off,” Lucas said. It wasn’t a _complete_ lie. He had been caught up on his work and had told Harry that he was taking off to drag Ros to the team’s little get-together tonight. Harry hadn’t objected, although he _had_ given Lucas a very strange look when he had thought Lucas wasn’t looking. Lucas couldn’t decide if it was glee or suspicion on Harry’s face. Thirty minutes later, he still wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure he _wanted_ to know. If he had to guess, it had something to do with the pool on whether he and Ros were dating. Which Lucas, of course, knew nothing about. Not. A. Single. Thing. Lucas would have thought that such office gossip was beneath Harry’s pay grade, but that look….

“How’d the doctor appointment go?” Lucas asked. Harry being in on the betting didn’t change Lucas’ or Ros’ determination to keep everyone guessing, so he decided he’d simply not worry about it.

“I can go back to work on Monday.” He didn’t miss the note of relief in her voice.

Lucas grinned. Ros wasn’t the only one that had been hoping for good news at the doctor today. He was looking forward to having her back, and not _just_ because he missed having her around to bounce ideas off of. Lucas didn’t miss being Section Chief. He had been honest with her, back when she’d asked him why he hadn’t challenged her for his old position back after he was released from prison. The job suited her a hell of a lot more than him. At the very least, she was better with the politicians than he was. _Apparently_ , they didn’t like being told that Lucas really didn’t care about their precious sensibilities when lives were on the line. Unfortunately, after the bombing, Lucas had been the only member on the Grid still standing. He and Ros had kept the Grid functioning during the Nightingale crisis, but when she’d been forced out on medical leave, it had left him back in charge and not enjoying a single minute of it. Probably the only redeeming thing was that he was able to pull some strings to get Dimitri assigned to Section D. _Now, if only I could pull some more strings to get rid of Beth…._ Yeah, Lucas was _definitely_ looking forward to having Ros back.

“Good, then you can come for drinks tonight with the rest of Section D,” Lucas announced and gently pried the book from Ros’ hands. She glared at him, albeit with none of the heat that he knew she was capable of.

“I was reading that.”

“And now you’re coming for drinks so you can meet the new recruits.”

She made a face. “Maybe I wanted a quiet Friday night in.”

“If I have to go, you have to go.”

“I’m sure I’ll dislike them _because you recruited them without asking me_.”

“Harry overruled me on Beth and hired her anyway. As for Dimitri, I _recommended_ him. I didn’t _tell_ Harry to hire him,” Lucas pointed out. Ros always hated when he played with semantics, but, _damn_ , did he get an amused kick out of riling her up. “I’m good, but even _I_ can’t single-handedly keep Section D going.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why not? You’re annoying enough to do it.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head again. “If you don’t come chaperone me, I might do something crazy like sneak back onto the Grid and mess with your desk.”

“You’ll do that anyway,” Ros said and patted his arm. “And don’t even _try_ saying you won’t.”

Lucas laughed. “Guilty, but I was going to wait until at _least_ Tuesday to do it.”

“Have I told you lately that you are an arse?”

“Not since this morning.”

“Consider yourself insulted.”

“I am duly insulted. Come on, Ros. Please, come? If you don’t, I’ll have to be _nice_. The last time I was nice to someone, I ended up having to work with that person. It was terrible.”

“If you’re talking about Beth, I don’t think that counts as being _nice_.”

“I gave her fifty euros, Ros. That was very nice of me.”

“You gave her fifty euros _after she said that she was undercover as a penniless prostitute_.”

“Which helped maintain her cover.”

“That she didn’t need anymore.”

“She was in private security before Harry pulled rank and foisted her on me. I reckon she could afford her own plane ticket without my fifty euros, and I gave it to her anyway. See? _Nice_.”

“Well, someone’s bitter about having to train the new recruits. I can’t _possibly_ imagine what it’s like, someone hiring someone else without consulting you first,” Ros said loftily.

“You can tell me all about how you hate the fresh blood after you come meet everyone tonight.”

“I _already_ know half the people that will be there.”

“And now you’ll know two more. Congratulations.”

She glared at him. “You’re not going to leave me alone until I agree, are you?”

“Nope.”

She sighed, somehow _exactly_ mimicking the exasperated sigh his mother always gave him whenever the neighbours were rushing to report on his latest shenanigans. He wasn’t sure if he should be unnerved that Ros was emulating his mother or trying to insist on keeping them _at least_ six hour’s drive from each other. _Right, because that worked_ ** _so well_** _when I was trying to keep Ros and Kate apart_.

“Fine, I’ll go. But only because you’ll use the annoying puppy eye look on me if I don’t.” Her smile, warm and genuine, told him that she didn’t actually mind going. If anything, Lucas imagined that she would just appreciate the outing. After months spent cooped up in the flat, really only leaving for groceries and therapy, he thought she was as ready to get out and see her new team as he was for her to take over again. At the very least, he knew that _he_ hadn’t handled forced medical leave particularly well — although, in his defence, he would argue that his boss being kidnapped and presumed dead counted as _extenuating circumstances_ , even if said boss hadn’t _quite_ agreed after he had been rescued.

“I don’t give the puppy eye look,” Lucas said, pressing a hand to his chest in mock injury.

Ros rolled her eyes and patted him on the arm again. “You do. It even works, _sometimes_.”

“That’s good to know,” Lucas said, grinning.

“I said _sometimes_.”

“You _also_ said that it works.”

“ _Sometimes_ , Lucas. _Sometimes_.”

“It works,” he said, winking.

She threw her hands up in the air as she got up. “You’re impossible.”

“The good kind of impossible or the bad kind?” Lucas asked her retreating back as she went into the bedroom to get changed. Ros didn’t answer. She didn’t _need_ to. The two fingers she lifted said enough. He grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was originally going to be one longer chapter, but Part 2 has given me no shortage of grief the past few days and my anxiety has been off the wall, so I decided to split the chapter into two and publish the first half now, the second half whenever the team decides to behave and do what they're told (lololololol clearly, my inspiration has never met Lucas).
> 
> ANYWAY.
> 
> Thank you, as always, to my lovely beta reader, Zen, for reading over this. Enjoy, everyone, and stay safe! <3


End file.
